June 11, 2009 - Bob Gretz |
From the Truman Sports Complex
The Chiefs ran through their ninth of 14 OTA sessions on Thursday morning and if they were keeping score - which they aren’t - it would be another victory for the defense.
In the teamwork portion of the practice in a dozen plays, QBs Matt Cassel and Tyler Thigpen were a combined two of seven throwing the ball. Cassel missed all three of his throws, while Thigpen was two of four. It was that kind of day for the offense.
“I feel like we made a lot of progress Tuesday on offense, but we kind of took a step back today,” said head coach Todd Haley. “After a day off, conditions were not ideal with a little wet field, we’ve got to learn to compete and execute in all types of conditions.”
For the first time in this off-season the Chiefs ran the two-minute drill and it did not end well for Cassel and the No. 1 offense. They had to go 70 yards in 90 seconds with two timeouts and they needed a touchdown to win. Cassel’s throw on the eighth play with 18 seconds left bounced off the hands and shoulder of WR Dwayne Bowe and was grabbed by CB Maurice Leggett for an interception.
The second offense faced a situation with 55 seconds to play, one timeout and they needed a FG to win, starting at their own 35-yard line. Thigpen got them into FG territory on six plays with 11 seconds left before they used their timeout.
There were 82 of the team’s 85 players on the field. Missing from the workout were the usual suspects: rookie CB Donald Washington, LG Brian Waters and OLB Mike Vrabel.
Here are some other observations from the session:

– The rehab crew was down to three players, as DE Glenn Dorsey returned to practice. He worked with the first-team defense at RDE. QB Brodie Croyle, RB Kolby Smith and DT Ron Edwards did not take part in the practice.

– In the two-minute drill, RB Jamaal Charles caught a pass and did not get out of bounds to stop the clock, forcing the offense to take a timeout. He heard about that from assistant coach Maurice Carthon.

– On the No. 1 defense, CB Richardo Colclough was running with the unit, replacing Leggett with the starters.

– Rookie WR Quentin Lawrence got an earful from the head coach when he didn’t lineup correctly and then didn’t run the right route.

– Working in the red zone during the seven-on-seven passing drill, Cassel and Thigpen went five of 10 and only one ball got into the end zone. Thigpen hit WR Rodney Wright just inside the goal line.

– In the teamwork portion of practice, they ran six plays in the red zone. Cassel’s first throw to WR
Terrance Copper was knocked down in the end zone by Colclough. His second throw to WR Mark Bradley was defensed well by CB Brandon Flowers. Thigpen got the only ball into the end zone, finding Cottam on the right side for the score.

_____________________

Pretty excited about Leggett being in every report. Kind of worried about Carr. When Leggett went out, Coclough came in? I think that the 2nd CB spot, is definitly up for grabs and they are giving everybody a chance to earn it. Nice to see Dorsey back. All together guys, looks like almost every position is up for grabs. Hopefully our O really picks it up come training camp.

Three7s

06-12-2009, 12:28 AM

From the looks of it, Thigpen is doing much better than Cassel.

PawnshopMarimba

06-12-2009, 12:57 AM

Yeah, nice to see Thiggy offering up a strong challenge to Cassel thus far.

Chiefster

06-13-2009, 03:11 AM

...Gotta chip on his shoulder.

dbolan

06-15-2009, 11:29 AM

If Thiggy performs better than Cassell in the pre-season games, we will see if the HC sticks to his word by starting the best player.

AussieChiefsFan

06-16-2009, 03:05 AM

From the looks of it, Thigpen is doing much better than Cassel.As long as one of them goes well I'm happy! I would really like to see Tyler shine though!

dbolan

06-16-2009, 09:37 AM

...If Matt is going to out perform Thiggy he is gonna need to use all oof his weapons, not just the positions he was used to using in NE cuz they have a better than average WR corp there . KC's WR corp is not as compariable.

Months ago I said his numbers won't be as good as they were in NE based on the difference in the Recieving Corp. If he held the ball too long in NE and got sacked mroe than any other QB...He may be in more of a pinch here with our OL.